masterpiece (with a fine new translation by Wallace Shawn) dramatizes is not the toll of economic forces on society but the toll of the director Scott Elliott's mediocre imagination on first-rate performers. In the original, the murderous Macheath is a perverse shadow of the capitalist dream of making a killing; he mar- ries Polly Peachum, whose parents set out to have him arrested and hanged. Here Macheath (Alan Cum- ming) is a bisexual sex addict; his paramour Lucy Brown (Brian Charles Rooney) is a transvestite. As Macheath's prostitute lover, Jenny, Cyndi Lauper has a husky voice that cannot be denied; as Mr. Peachum, Jim Dale, an old musical pro, turns in a proper piece of epic acting. Brecht wanted to dazzle and disabuse; Elliott wants to dazzle and delight. (5/1/06) (Studio 54, at 254 W. 54th St. 212-719-1300.) THE WEDDING SINGER A musical based on the 1998 movie, about a wed- ding singer who falls in love with a bride-to-be in New Jersey in the eighties. John Rando directs. (AI Hirschfeld, 302 W. 45th St. 212-239-6200.) Also Playing AWAKE AND SING!: Belasco, 111 W. 44th St. 212-239-6200. BACK OF THE THROAT: Flea, 41 White St. 212-352-3101. LOS BIG NAMES: 47th Street Theatre, 304 W. 47th St. 212-239-6200. EN- TERT AINING MR. SLOANE: Laura Pels, 111 W.46th St. 212-719-1300. JACQUES BREL IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN PARIS: Zipper, 336 W. 37th St. 212-239-6200. A JEW GROWS IN BROOK- L YN: American Theatre of Actors, 314 W. 54th St. 212-352-3101. LANDSCAPE OF THE BODY: Peter Norton Space, 555 W. 42nd St. 212-352- 3101. THE PAJAMA GAME: American Airlines Theatre, 227W. 42nd St. 212-719-1300. RED LIGHT WINTER: Barrow Street Theatre, 27 Barrow St. 212-239-6200. STUFF HAPPENS: Public, 425 La- fayette St. 212-239-6200. SWEENEY TODD: Eu- gene O'Neill, 230 W. 49th St. 212-239-6200. THREE DAYS OF RAIN: Bernard B. Jacobs, 242 W. 45th St. 212-239-6200. TRYST: Promenade, Broadway at 76th St. 212-239-6200. WELL: Longacre, 220 W. 48th St. 212-239-6200. NIGHT LIFE ROCK AND POP Musicians and night-club proprietors live com- plicated lives; it s advisable to call ahead to confirm engagements. B. B. KING BLUES CLUB & GRILL 237W. 42nd St. (212-997-4144)-May 3: The cult figure Dan Hicks, whose cynicism, after all this time, still doesn't outweigh his lyricism, pulls up with his Hot Licks. BEACON THEATRE Broadway at 74th St. (212-307-7171)-May 3-4: The Charlotte, North Carolina, native Anthony Hamilton grew up singing gospel, and he delivers his old-school R. & B. with a religious intensity. BOWERY BALLROOM 6 Delancey St. (212-533-2111)-May 4-5: The pop- ular young folksinger Josh Ritter splits the bill with Hem, a charming local ensemble with countrypoli- tan leanings. May 8: The Swedish pop collective the Concretes. CUTTING ROOM 19 W. 24th St. (212-691-1900)-May 5: Kate Tay- lor, the sister of James and Livingston, drops by with a new group for a night of rockabilly. Kate's voice has a distinctive North Carolina-inflected twang, and her band has a fine pedigree: the gui- tarist Bill Derby has played with Bruce Springsteen; Sam Zucchini has drummed for Carly Simon; the bassist Dave Anderson has supported Taj Mahal; and the mandolin player and backup singer Cath- erine Russell is the daughter of Carline Ray (Ruth Brown's bassist) and the late Luis Russell, who played piano for Louis Armstrong. THE DELANCEY 168 Delancey St. (212-254-9920)-Mondays in May: The down-tempo beats, haunted-matinée-style organ playing, and electronic flourishes of Mudville. IRVING PLAZA 17 Irving PI., at 15th St. (212-777-6800)-May 4: The East Village Opera Company gives a guitar crunch to classic overtures. May 7: The natty Boston-based power-pop quintet Click Five. JOEIS PUB 425 Lafayette St. (212-539-8777)-May 3: Thom- as Dolby, too often dismissed as a New Wave one-hit wonder despite his pioneering work with synthesizers, knows more about how to get a pile of transistors into orbit (at least musically) than all the engineers at NASA. Recently, Dolby was vaulted back into the news after Kevin Federline (a.k.a. Mr. Britney Spears) sampled a bit of "She Blinded Me with Science" without permission. May 5: The Sharp Things, a sprawling local en- semble led by the pianist Perry Serpa that special- izes in lush, retro-flavored, sentimental pop. They're appearing with another local group, the Bedsit Poets, whose tender originals have an early-sixties Innocence. IILETIS ZYDECO II The roving concert series dedicated to the indige- nous music of Louisiana seems to have found a home at Connolly's, an Irish Bar in midtown with a fine wooden dance floor. On May 7, the Doc Mar- shaUs will get couples moving in time. (121 W. 45th St. For more information, call 212-685-7597 or visit www.1etszydeco.com.) MERCURY LOUNGE 217 E. Houston St. (212-260-4700)-May 5: Chris Berry and Panjea are joined by Michael Kang, the violinist and mandolin player for the String Cheese Incident. Berry, who was born thirty-four years ago in Los Angeles and raised in Sebastopol, California, left the Bay Area as a teen-ager and spent more than garde classical music, folk, and pop-but what really binds them is a passion for found sounds (they spend a fair amount of time wandering around with mi- crophones and tape recorders). They cut and paste these elements into sonic delights that come acrosss like disembodied sound sculptures. The pair tour with video projections of (what else?) snippets of old home movies from thrift shops. May 6: Captured! By Ro- bots, a one-man, multi-cyborg band from San Fran- cisco. The man goes by the name JBO't and he built his fellow band members because, he says, he couldn't get along with other people. Unfortunately, the ro- bots got the better of him and enslaved him, or so the story goes. As if that were not enough, JBOT was recently ordained by the Universal Life Church, and he has invited his fans to get married onstage during the show, although he claims no responsibility for how his bandmates might act. RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL Sixth Ave. at 50th St. (212-247-4777)-May 5: Aus- tralia's INXS rode a rough form of dance rock to chart success in the eighties and nineties, but the party came to a halt, at least briefly, when the group's lead singer, Michael Hutchence, died, in 1997. In recent years, the band tried out a few other front men be- fore settling on a novel solution: a talent search via a reality TV show. Last summer, "Rock Star: INXS" crowned JD Fortune, a former Elvis impersonator from Canada, as the new lead singer of the group. May 9: The seventies soft-rock ensemble Chicago. ST. ANNIS WAREHOUSE 38 Water St., Brooklyn (718-254-8779)-May 4: The singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash mourns the recent deaths of her father, Johnny, her stepmother, June Carter, and her mother, Vivian Liberto, on her latest release, "Black Cadillac." As if to make i TABLES FOR TWO BOULEY, UPSTAIRS 130 West Broadway, at Duane St. (212-608-5829)- Few chefs are as restless as David Bouley, and this tri-Ievel venture across the road from his flagship restaurant takes eclecticism (or sheer caprice) to new levels. The ground floor is a bakeshop, selling plush loaves and Parisian pâtisseries. The basement is a "market," in reality a cabinet of meat and fish of irreproachable quality but insufficient variety. And, in the evenings, the top floor is a tiny restau- rant, serving French-American fare and-why not?- sushi. A mission statement promises a "dining ex- perience defined by eclecticism in taste and clarity in presentation." No quibbles with the first half of this claim. There is, however, little effort to integrate the various areas of the menu into a meal. A Japa- nese salad of grilled eel and cucumber and a squash soup dappled with sweet chestnuts are equally outstanding as starters, but nothing from the kitchen ever arrives at the same time as any- thing from the sushi bar. The good-humored staff manages brilliantly, considering the tiny space and the complexity of the operation, but chaos is never far away. The tightly spaced chairs ne- cessitate a certain agility from the waitstaff, or at least a tolerance of thrown elbows; one din- er's apology for leaning back into a waitress met with a breezy "I'm used to it." However, it's amazing that things work as well as they do. The wait for a table is ameliorated by the offer of a drink; the specialty cocktails come in combinations (gin and ginger, Campari and soju) that attempt a cultural synthesis similar to that of the food. Bouley, when all's said and done, can re- ally cook, and clearly cares about little else. Hali- but served with sweet corn and shiitake mushrooms in a lemon-and-thyme sauce is a marvel of aromatic delicacy. Lobster is transformed, but not over- whelmed, by red-wine sauce and a cushion of pars- nip purée. It's best to arrive late in the evening, when the room thins, the pace slows, and, some- times, Bouley himself casually munches burgers with his staff. It's then that his notion of the place as somewhere you might wander in for a bite to eat starts to seem almost realistic. (Open Mondays through Saturdays for dinner. Entrées $12-$21.) -Leo Carey a decade in Africa. He lived on the street, mastered the mbira (thumb piano) and the Congolese ngoma drum, and, after taking top honors on the TV show "New African Stars '91," in Zimbabwe, became a star throughout southern Africa. He returned to America in 2000, and he recently released his first U.S. album, the aptly named "Dancemakers." NORTHSIX 66 N. 6th St., Williamsburg, Brooklyn (718-599- 5103)-May 5: The Books are the guitarist Nick Zammuto and Paul de Jong, a classically trained cel- list. The two share a wide range of interests-avant- clear the personal nature of the proceedings, the album opens with a recording of Johnny's voice calling her name, but Rosanne turns her pain into something with universal appeal. She heals by uniting; the album brings together country, rock, adult contemporary, and other genres. TONIC 107 Norfolk St. (212-358-7503)-The new album by Oakland's Faun Fables, "The Transit Rider," out- lines a fairy tale about a young, nature-loving pas- senger (played by Dawn McCarthy, the group's founder and main songwriter) who gets trapped in a train car THE NEW YORKER, MAY 8, 2006 II